Posted on: Sunday, January 9, 2005

OUR HONOLULU

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

The Our Honolulu Historic Missing Persons Bureau has been phenomenally successful. We have already connected Matthew Makalua, the first Hawaiian to study medicine, with his real family and have learned that Mark Twain was not his father (see the past two columns).

Now comes Hardy Spoehr with a request to locate the families of two other students whom King Kalakaua sent overseas in the 1880s and who never returned. Spoehr, executive director of Papa Ola Lokahi, the Hawaiian health bureau, has been working on this puzzle for about a year.

"Three of the young Hawaiians King Kalakaua sent to study in foreign lands died there," said Spoehr. "One of them was Matthew Makalua about whom you've written. The other two are James Booth, who died in Naples, Italy, and Joseph Kamau'oha who went to England with Makalua and also died there."

Spoehr said he has located the grave of Joseph Kamau'oha in Torquay, England. Booth was buried in the British graveyard in Naples but the bodies were moved and the cemetery put to commercial use.

So far, that's all Spoehr knows.

He said he and Dr. Ben Young, who has been tracking Matthew Makalua for 25 years, are going to Europe this summer to explore the possibility of returning the students to their homeland if the families are willing.

"Booth went to Naples with Hawaiian revolutionary leader Robert Wilcox," Spoehr explained. "Many of the students sent to Europe by Kalakaua suffered from respiratory ailments because of coal smoke in the cities. Then there was a cholera epidemic in Naples. The students from Hawai'i fled to the mountains to escape the epidemic. Booth came back to the city to take an exam, caught the disease and died.

"Joseph Kamau'oha studied in London. The expense accounts of the students shows that they bought shoes to play rugby. So they were physically active in a city known for heavy coal smoke. Kamau'oha suffered frequent respiratory ailments. He came down with severe pneumonia. His doctor sent him to recover in Torquay, a town on the coast. He died there and was buried in a pauper's grave."

If you are related to James Booth or Joseph Kamau'oha, call Spoehr at 597-6550.

Of the 18 students (including one woman) sent overseas for study by Kalakaua, all but the above three returned and some of them became well known. They include David Kawananakoa, Robert Wilcox, James Haku'ole, Isaac Harbottle, Abraham Pi'ianaia and Robert Napu'uako Boyd.

The education program began in 1880 when legislator Robert Ho'apili Baker introduced a bill to provide money to educate "Hawaiian Youths Abroad."

Kalakaua personally reviewed the performance of the students while they were overseas.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.